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LIST OF SIPHONAPTERA COLLECTED IN EASTERN 



HUNGARY. 



By Dr. K. JORDAN and the Hon. N. CHARLES ROTHSCHILD, M.A. 



DURING Jalj and earl}- Augnst of last year the senior author s()ent 

 some four weeks at Biharfiired (= Stina de Vale) in the forest-clad Bihar 

 Mountains of Eastern Hungary. The insect fauna of that district proved to be 

 very poor, there being hariUy anything among the Lepidoptera which is worth 

 recording. The high-lying parts are open grazing ground, where large herds of 

 horses, cattle and sheep are encountered, and on these closely-cropped hills 

 hardly any Lepidojjtera were seen but Hepialus fiiscoiiebulosiis and some Pyrals. 

 The virgin forest, which covers the mountain-sides nearly without iuterru])tion, 

 consists almost exclusively of beecli and pine, there being hardly any brush- 

 wood and no oak I'rom about 7UU metres upwards. The woods are very dam]), 

 springs being found almost everywhere, and the amount of rainfall is very high. 

 Bihilrfilred, which has a season of barely ten weeks, is noted for its low average 

 temperature and pure ozonified air, and remained trne to its reputation even in 

 the exceptional summer of 1911. While the rest of Earope was being baked 

 and parched, the rainy days were in the majority at Biharfiired, and the guests 

 often gathered around the stove to warm their benumbed fingers, attempts even 

 being made by enterprising people to light the stove in their bedroom, the 

 attempt generally ending in smoke. 



As a rule, trajjping for small mammals was only attended to on rainy 

 days, when it was impossible to make excursions to the hunting grounds for 

 Lepidoptera, situated on the slopes towards Belenyes between 8t)0 and 13ii0 m. 

 The number of species obtained was only five, of which four {Sorex araiii'iis, 

 Mus silvaticus, Hypudaeus glareolus and Microtus agrestis) were quite common in 

 the beech-woods and on the meadow before the bungalows, while Sorex miiiutus 

 appeared to be rare. These mammals frequented the same places and even the 

 same holes — which accounts for the fact that the species of fleas were greatly 

 mixed up on the various hosts. 



As among the fleas collected there are several species not previously recorded 

 from Hungary, we deem the captures of sufficient interest to be recorded here. 



No bird-fleas were obtained. Bird-life was even poorer at Biharfiired than 

 the Lepidoptera. Besides two species of Motacilla, a solitary couple of swallows, an 

 occasional jay and nnthatch, and some woodpeckers, there was nothing in the 

 hollow where the " Luftkurort " is situated — not even a sparrow. The place is 

 too densely wooded, and the warm season too short, being moreover fre(inently 

 interrupted by a sudden fall of the thermometer to freezing-point, for harbouring 

 an abundance of insect and bird life, which flourishes more on open, sunny glades 

 than in a pure, bracing atmosphere with a high percentage of ozone. 



Pulex irritans, Ctenocuphalus canis, anil Ct. folix do not ajipear in our list of 

 captures — from which fact, however, it would be hasty to draw conclusions as 

 to their absence. 



